10 of 13

Last week I dropped off an application for a BMR apartment. This morning they did the drawing, and I am now 10th on a list of 13. People from the mayor's office are going through the applications this week to make sure the winners qualify. If eight of the applications ahead of mine DQ, but mine passes muster, I get an apartment. My odds of getting the place seem slim.

I have a date Saturday afternoon with the nice realtor lady. :)


Today's earrings: compasses

Bedtime reading: Nation, Terry Pratchett

Warning: Lark's Vomit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU


Today's earrings: ants, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

[cue fish-slapping dance]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCwLirQS2-o


Today's earrings: dead fish

Bedtime reading: Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

Super Heroes

Am I the only one who's a little bewildered at the idea that a complete bailout package for Wall Street must be passed this week or the world will end? I mean, what a coincidence that it's the last week of the last congressional session of Bush's last term when the bursting of the housing bubble (that's been going on for a while now) came to such an acute crisis that the government had to bail out Wall Street RIGHT THIS SECOND OMG GOTTA DO IT NOW! Funny how the timing works out, y'know? And - I know this is just crazy talk - wouldn't it make more sense to put together a relatively small program of short-term loans (using the exec's golden parachutes as collateral) that will get everyone through to January in a relatively liquid state, when the new Secretary of the Treasury can present the new President's plan for coping with the mortgage crisis to the new Congress? Doesn't that seem like the prudent thing to do?


Today's earrings: ants, blue beads

Bedtime reading: Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett

The woman at the next desk is listening to Journey

I guess her headphones came unplugged, or something, because her music is playing loud and clear. "Don't Stop Believing" added an interesting background track to the Cars' "Shake It Up," but "Wheel in the Sky" did nothing good for Michelle Shocked's "Shaking Hands."

Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

Don't stop belee-eevin'
hold on to that feeling, baby


UPDATE, 3pm: I think she went to the gym or something, because she was wearing a perfectly businesslike skirt 'n' top, and now she's in sweats and a Rolling Stones T-shirt. The one with the lolling tongue. Poseur. I know she listens to Journey.


Today's earrings: eyes, crows

Bedtime reading: Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

Happy Autumn, Everyone

Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

Equinox

Started with the usual Monday routine. At noon, I headed home to meet the plumber. I arrived to find Mrs. M (the building manager) chatting with S (the woman down the hall from me).
"We've broken into your apartment!" cried Mrs. M, gaily.
And they had. Apparently replacing a flushing mechanism takes no time at all. At least, not for my old friend Competent Plumber (love him!). They were running ahead of schedule and started without me. After they left, I had a grilled cheese sandwich.

Then I took the 49 down to the Mission and dropped off the application for that apartment. Caught the 14 back toward downtown. Around 12th Street the chattering drunk sitting behind me said something that offended one of the dudes in the back of the bus. The dude spoke sharply enough to the drunk that people got up and moved toward the front of the bus. Fellow riders began expressing opinions. I though the most sensible was, "Dude, let him talk, he's just Drunk." Less sensible was the woman sitting next to me, who began threatening to call the cops, who, she said, would surround the bus and they'd all be stuck there. Uh-huh. She didn't lower the temperature all that much, but Dude and Drunk did intermittently join together in their contempt for her. All this went on until 4th Street, when she got off, and the drunk started chattering freely again, and the dude started speaking sharply again...

I got off at 2nd, grabbed a wee slurpee from the 7-11 on Market, and went back to work.

After work I stopped in at Whole Foods for supplies, then came home and made cream-of-grilled-salmon soup. mmmm, soup.


Today's earrings: irons, anchors

Bedtime reading: Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

wanna know what I didn't do today?

Talk like a pirate.


Today's earrings: monkeys, estrogen molecules

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

Jimson Weed Gazette

This dude is giving out prizes for making donations to Obama:
http://jimsonweed.blogspot.com/2008/09/ill-send-you-free-photo.html

Personally I prefer House (West L.A.) from last October, but the one he's giving away is nice, too.


Today's earrings: moose, theobromine molecules

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

The Girls of Slender Means

Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions. The streets of the cities were lined with buildings in bad repair or in no repair at all, bomb-sites piled with stony rubble, houses like giant teeth in which decay had been drilled out, leaving only the cavity. Some bomb-ripped buildings looked like the ruins of ancient castles until, at a closer view, the wallpapers of various quite normal rooms would be visible, room above room, exposed, as on a stage, with one wall missing; sometimes a lavatory chain would dangle over nothing from a fourth- or fifth-floor ceiling; most of all the staircases survived, like a new art-form, leading up to an unspecified destination that made unusual demands on the mind's eye. All the nice people were poor; at least, that was a general axiom, the best of the rich being poor in spirit.

- - Muriel Spark

Today's earrings: scarabs

Bedtime reading: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark

Eureka

It's like watching the Golden Age of television again: the show is an anti-perspirant commercial with an A plot, a B plot, and a season-long arc... ok, so the Golden Age didn't really have season-long arcs.

They should have kept Dry Cleaner Lady; she could have gone around making remarks about how no one has sweat stains any more.


Today's earrings: spiders, webs

Bedtime reading: Interesting times, Terry Pratchett

Had a drink with the nice realtor lady

We had a nice chat about what I was looking for, how long it might take to find, that sort of thing. We shall see...

Came home, checked Craigslist, found the city's affordable housing program. Two units, a touch small but otherwise perfect, are up for lottery week after next. Must submit ap...


Today's earrings: turtles, typewriter keys

Bedtime reading: Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett

Went to look at an apartment today

The listing said "1 bedroom," and there was a 1 bedroom available, but the price listed was for a studio in the same building. The 1 bedroom was half again the price listed. And, y'know, if I'd known the actual asking price going in, I'd maybe have been thinking about writing an offer. I know the agent listed it that way to get more people to come look... but the psychology backfired, at least with me.

Afterward, M & I went adventuring. We viewed the Shakespeare Garden, and I sang from the bandshell in the Music Concourse. ("There's No Business Like Show Business.")


Today's earrings: eyes, shells

Bedtime reading: Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett

Spent the afternoon with my old friend

I didn't recognize him at first. I think I was looking for a 25-year-old kid, and there was this 40-something businessman standing there. He recognized me, though. It was just like old times, really, except he talked more than he used to about his wife & kids. (The kids are most cute.)


Today's earrings: squirrels, leaves

Bedtime reading: Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett

400th post

The headline was:

_________!

IF LIFE'S A BLANK

TAKE NUTRAX

"And in any case," grumbled Tallboy, "the Morning Star won't take it. They won't put in anything that looks like bad language."
"Your look-out," said Ingleby. "Why not ask'em?"
Tallboy muttered something impolite.
"Anyway, if Hankin's passed it, it'll have to be laid out, I suppose," said Ingleby. "Surely the studio - oh! hullo! here's your man. You'd better worry him. Bredon!"
"That's me!" said Mr. Bredon, "All present and correct!"
"Where've you been hiding from Tallboy? You knew he was on your tail."
"I've been on the roof," admitted Bredon, apologetically. "Cooler and all that. What's the matter? What have I done?"
"Well, this headline of yours, Mr. Bredon. How do you expect them to illustrate it?"
"I don't know. I left it to their ingenuity. I always believe in leaving scope to other people's imagination."
"How on earth are they to draw a blank?"
"Let 'em take a ticket in the Irish Sweep. That'll larn 'em," said Ingleby.

- - Dorothy L. Sayers

Today's earrings: hands, basketweave spoons

Bedtime reading: Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett

Home sick today

No earrings.

Much napping.

Reunion

s/w my long-lost old friend today. He'll be in SF this weekend, so we're tentatively getting together Saturday afternoon.

This should be interesting.


Today's earrings: boots, alligators

Bedtime reading: Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett

The Blue Dog

October

loss of one of the senses

weltschmerz

unnatural vice

disorders of the knee

diseases of the tongue

disturbances

miscarriage of a child

an accident in a garage

dementia

fraud

a quarrel

wispiness

-- Edward Gorey, The Fantod Pack, or, The Awful Vista of the Year

Today's earrings: skeletal fish

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Rediscovered

Got in to work this morning to find an email from HF (the one who called me out of the blue last Monday). Thanks for the email info, he says, but can he have real addresses? Spent the day trying to come up with a polite way to say, "Of course not." I shall think about it tomorrow.

Just as I was about to go home, I got an email from K, forwarding a note from a guy I knew all the way back in C'ville. He didn't find me on the web, he said, but he remembered meeting my mathematician sister once, so he took a chance that K was her, and she is. I just sat there and gaped at the screen. I haven't seen him in about 15 years. I wonder why he's writing now.

I wonder who'll find me next Monday.


Today's earrings: turtles, shells

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Summer day

We had a lovely brunch, and then we played Scrabble. I won, by a few measly points, because M got stuck with the Q.

After, we got the fabric for my Halloween costume. I'ts going to be good.


Today's earrings: dragonflies, other dragonfiles

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Still too darn hot

I'd like to coo with my baby tonight
and pitch some woo with my baby
tonight
I'd like to coo with my baby tonight
and pitch some woo with my
baby tonight
but sister you fight my baby tonight
cause it's too darn
hot
it's too darn hot

- - Cole Porter

Today's earrings: flies, amber

Bedtime reading: Silks, Dick & Felix Francis

Nonverbal

Confronted my standing workplace dilemma again today: how do I tell someone who does not report to me what she's doing wrong? Especially since the degree of error she perpetrates tends to make me speechless with rage, and we work in a great big room with a dozen people listening.

Today I went with sending screen shots.


Today's earrings: turtles, other turtles

Bedtime reading: Silks, Dick and Felix Francis

Woke up this morning...

at about 4. Then I couldn't get back to sleep. It was just too darn hot.

I hope I get some sleep tonight...


Today's earrings: leaves, flowers

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Bounders

Heard from TL today - they're well, but have to fix their front staircase, and he may be doing some consulting in Europe this fall in addition to their usual peregrinations.


Today's earrings: frogs, rabbits

Bedtime reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis

Wha...?

[phone rings]
- Hello
- - Hello, may I speak to [My Name].
- Who's calling please?
- - This is H--- F-----.
- No, seriously?


H--- F----- is either a half-cousin or a step-cousin. I believe I last saw him when Nixon was president. Ford at the latest. Anyway, he's on a find-the-relatives kick. I was the first one on the list, he said. He wants everyone's addresses. He seemed to be who he said he was, and all, but I thought I should check in with you all before I gave your address to a guy I haven't seen in at least 30 years, so I told him to email me and I'd send along what I have. I got his email address if you want it.